


Missed Direction

by dream56



Category: Digimon Adventure
Genre: Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-29
Updated: 2018-03-29
Packaged: 2019-04-14 17:56:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14141400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dream56/pseuds/dream56
Summary: Gennai sends the boys off to fetch some groceries, seemingly unaware that asking even the smallest chore of Tai and Izzy usually leads to trouble.





	Missed Direction

“I want you kids to go pick up some pistachio ice cream and dried apricots for me down at the convenience store.” Gennai was doddering about, hunting in his coin purse for the necessary billage.

“You want us to go?” Izzy asked, looking up from his laptop.

“Sure,” Gennai said, finally extracting an ancient looking set of change. “I figure you kids these days need some fresh air, outdoor recreational type stuff, so I’d send you on an errand. Better than being cooped up in my house all day.”

Tai could tell by Izzy’s face that “outdoor recreation” was not the option Izzy was going for, but what could it hurt. “Sounds good to me,” Tai said. “You coming too, Izzy?”

“Well, in all seriousness, these calculations beg analysis and I’m far too behind already with the computations needed for all the data I’ve collected regarding the surrounding area. Aside from that, I have—“

Whatever it was Izzy had, it remained unexpressed for at that moment Izzy’s laptop screen went black, a suitable interruption for whatever Izzy was going to say.

“What…what _happened_?” Izzy said, pressing the power key more and more rapidly.

Gennai nodded blankly, scratching his chin. “Oh, yes, that happens pretty often around here. Anything electrical just goes _boof_ , up in the air. It oughta work right again in a few hours.”

“ _Hours_ ,” Izzy repeated.

“You heard him, Izzy. So what do you say to that trip now?” Tai displayed a winning smile.

“I cannot believe this is happening.”

\--

Once Tai and Izzy had pried directions from their suspiciously senile host, they set off. Izzy spent most of his time staring at the ground, kicking rocks in retaliation for the universe’s cruel, anti-electronical ways.

Tai almost wondered why Izzy wasn’t used to it by now. It wasn’t as though any of the other various electrical appliances dotting the digital world, from telephone booths, to refrigerators, to that tram which lit up every other night, followed the logic of the real world. Still, Izzy was a creature of habit, a dependable resource to consult and exasperate.

Tai hummed happily as Izzy savaged a particularly impedimentary rock in his way, sending it skipping into the bushes several feet away.

“We’re almost there, I think,” Tai said. He pulled out a map he’d drawn for the trip but Izzy rolled his eyes. He’d had experience with Tai’s maps. They looked like spaghetti. _Colorful_ spaghetti, but in no way _useful_ spaghetti.

“How can you tell?” Izzy asked.

“Because we’re approaching the little squiggle I have here that Gennai said was a signpos—“

At which point, Tai walked directly into said signpost. It was a pleasant change for an accurate map, but it still didn’t help the cartographer to hold it three inches from his face. Izzy observed Tai lying on the ground.

“…Do you want any help?” Izzy asked.

“No, no, I think I’m fine. …Though you could have warned me about that signpost Izzy, jeez.”

“Why? I thought you knew where it was on your map.”

Tai sat up. “I _did_ ,” he said indignantly.

“Well then, why did you walk into it?”

“ _It_ ran into _me_.”

“It looks rather stationary, Tai.”

Tai climbed to his feet and dusted himself off. “Anyway, wise guy, according to this map, the signpost should tell us where to go.”

“Left then,” Izzy said. The signpost itself was odd like everything else in this world. It was slightly crooked and had about twenty eight different signs, all pointing in different directions and some written in indecipherable characters.

“Any idea what those are for?” asked Tai.

“Probably other convenience stores,” Izzy said bluntly, walking along and leaving Tai to stare at the squiggles on the signboards. They might have found a companion with the doodles on Tai’s map.

\--

The convenience store was typical looking from the outside: solid brick construction, large thin windows plastered with advertisements, and automatic doors. The doors opened up for them before they were anywhere near the entrance. Izzy groaned.

“Either those doors are an anomaly or my computer’s working again.”

“Probably a fluke,” Tai said and continued inside. “Hello?” he called.

The store, like most of the digital world, had no apparent people in sight. No staff, no one at the cash register, and definitely no one browsing the aisles. Curiously the aisles, like the rest of the store, were fully stocked, loaded down with as much junk food as any hopeless couch potato could dream of.

“Izzy! You’ve got to come look at this!”

Izzy joined Tai inside, perusing without much interest at first. He’d prefer just to grab the items they’d been sent for. Yet, after a few minutes, Tai’s enthusiasm became infectious.

“Look at these, Izzy! Clam chips! I haven’t had these since I was just a kid. I didn’t know they even still made these!”

“You might want to check the expiration date then Tai.”

“Ah, yeah, yeah, whatever. Hey. There’s nobody here. You think anyone would mind if I had just one bag?”

“I don’t know,” Izzy said, walking into another aisle. “I wouldn’t risk it.”

Even out of sight, Izzy could sense Tai’s movements and predictably the next second Izzy heard the tell-tale crinkle of plastic ripping open.

“What the?”

Izzy frowned. “What? What is it?”

“Izzy, this bag is empty. There’s nothing in it.”

Tai tossed the bag he was holding over the top of the aisle to Izzy who caught it. As Tai said, the bag was lacking in chips, even more so than usual factory packaged bags.

“Tai, this is strange. There aren’t even crumbs in here. The bag is clean.”

“Tell me about it. I’m going to try another.”

Tai ripped open another bag only to find it empty too.

“…You know what,” he said. “I don’t think I want these anymore.”

Izzy smiled. It figured that Tai’s favorite snack would fool him. Izzy turned and made a pleased noise.

“Here are the dried apricots,” he said.

“Are you sure?” Tai asked miserably. “They might be empty too.”

“It’s a clear plastic container, Tai. I’m pretty sure.”

Izzy tossed the box over the aisle and Tai caught it with one hand. As Izzy had said, the dried apricots were present and accounted for, and even more than that, looked fresh.

“Izzy, these say they’re supposed to expire twenty years from now.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Izzy said, leaving his aisle to look for the refrigerated section. “We just need to find ice cream now.”

Tai joined him to look through the glass doors into the cases. A dazzling array of fun pops, strawberry bars, pineapple sorbet, specialty ices, freezies, frosties, frozen yogurt, and chilled mackerel shined at them.

“Most of those boxes are probably empty,” Tai said.

Izzy tested Tai’s theory, opened the door, pulled a chilled mackerel box out and shook it.

“Something’s in here,” Izzy said and put it back.

“Figures the weird thing would have something in it.”

Izzy looked up. “Ah...Tai, look up there, top shelf. There’s the pistachio ice cream. No vanilla or chocolate though.” Izzy reached for it but his hand didn’t come close.

Tai laughed and muscled in. “Here, let me do that.” Tai reached too, but it was still too high up, even on his tip toes.

“How does Gennai get that up there? He’s not any taller than us.”

“No clue,” Tai said. “But I’ve got an idea.” Without wasting a second, Tai started climbing the lower shelves, kicking the other frozen wares out of his way.

“Tai, get down,” Izzy hissed.

“No, hold on a second, I’ll be down in a jiffy. I’m almost to the top anyway.” Tai reached, just barely grabbing the pint of ice cream.

“There! Didn’t I tell you?”

Izzy wasn’t impressed. “Just get down please. You’ll get hurt up there.”

“Oh don’t worry, Izzy. I’ve fallen on my head plenty of times and it’s never—“ A shelf beneath him made a nasty cracking sound and Tai stumbled backward, knocking things off the shelf as he fell.

“Tai!” Izzy said.

After a few seconds and a flurry of _thumps_ , Tai sat up, rubbing his head, surrounded by a shelf’s worth of chilled mackerel.

“Wow, usually I just slip. Never had that happen before.”

“If you would please…”

Tai found himself pinning Izzy underneath him and scrambled up, brushing the boxes off the shorter boy.

“Izzy! What are you doing there! I thought you got out of the way.”

“Not with you falling,” Izzy said, sitting up. He was teary but unhurt.

“I am _so_ sorry Izzy. Are you hurt? Did I break anything? Are you all right?”

Izzy rubbed his face. “I’m _fine_. You just landed on me. And you’re heavy as dead weight.”

Tai hugged Izzy around the neck. “Thank goodness. I know I have a hard head but I’d hate to hurt yours. You have so much more in yours than I do.”

Izzy paused, surprised for a moment, before reciprocating and patting his gloved hands on Tai’s back and eventually squeezing him. “I told you not to climb on those shelves. You should have known they wouldn’t be stable.”

Tai chuckled in his careless, likely more than prone to accidents, completely sparkling way. “Ah, stable, whatever. What matters is I got the ice cream. It’s…wait a minute, where is it?”

They both let go of each other and looked around. They counted twelve boxes of mackerel and three boxes of push-up pops but no ice cream.

“Don’t tell me…” Izzy said.

“No, wait, hold on a second!” Tai got up and dashed over to the end of the aisle. “Here it is. Must have rolled away when I let go of it.” Aside from a slight dent on the lid, the ice cream seemed unscathed. Tai peeked inside and sighed relieved.

“Good.”

“What?” Izzy asked.

“There’s _actually_ ice cream in here.”

\--

After leaving Gennai’s change on the cashier stand, they walked back without needing Tai’s map, vaguely remembering the way. By the time they’d reached the signpost, there was a weird warm embarrassment creeping in between them. Tai felt pressed to talk, talk about anything.

“Sorry you had to come with me, Izzy. I know you’d rather have been working on your computer.”

Izzy didn’t say anything for a bit, observing the flora unthinkingly, sometimes putting his hand out to it, then thinking better of it. Tai acquiesced into silence and swung the plastic to-go bag they’d found with the shopping mart’s logo on it. The ice cream made droplets of cold condensation at the bottom of the bag.

When Gennai’s house was in sight, Izzy spoke up.

“It’s not your fault my computer went on the fritz.”

Tai responded eagerly. “No, no, but I mean, if you didn’t want to come, you didn’t have to. You might have found something better to do.”

Izzy looked at Tai crossly. “And leave you to go climb shelves by yourself and get buried in frozen yogurt? You need all the help you can get Tai.”

Tai looked at Izzy, a bit hurt and Izzy just laughed, eventually causing Tai to laugh with him.

“Look,” Tai said, “I get results. That’s all I’m saying.”

“One of these days Tai, you’re going to need somebody to keep you from getting into trouble.”

“I’m always going to get into trouble,” Tai said. He veered his walking a little closer to Izzy and looked at him. His voice was quieter and his face reddened. “But I wouldn’t mind having somebody like that…you know…around.”

Izzy bumped into Tai and Tai dropped the bag and the apricots scooted along the road. Tai scrambled around, running after the ice cream which had made a break for it. Izzy waited, holding the apricot box.

Tai rushed back and Izzy shook his head.

“You’re going to need a miracle-worker, Tai.”

Tai sighed glumly. “I’m starting to see that.”

Izzy put the apricots in the bag, then took the bag, walking away. “Don’t look too hard, Tai” he said.

“What?”

Tai watched Izzy walk into Gennai’s house, leaving him standing in the road. A street lamp flickered and came on, signaling electricity buzzing in the air, even though it was still only noon.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> For MJEsperandieu.


End file.
